• Phase One: Find a Problem/Need/Opportunity
• Phase Two: Write a Proposal
• Phase Three: Research and Develop Your Project Document
• Plan the Oral Presentation
• Manage the Project Collaboratively
• Conditions for Firing a Group Member
• Consequences of Being Fired
• Evaluation of the Project and Its Components

Phase One: Find a Problem/Need/Opportunity
 
Phase one calls for individual work to develop topic statements for potential projects.  The group will then select from among these topic statements to determine which project to pursue.

Elements of a topic statement:

1. state a potential problem your group could address,
2. describe what organization your group is or represents or could represent,
3. identify the decision-making readers your group could attempt to persuade, and
4. demonstrate the timeliness of the topic and available information by giving the citation for one current (1998-2000) print article and summarizing that article.

• Scan the field of your own major.  What trends and concerns in your discipline interest you and strike you as worth investing some time and effort in understanding?  Make an inventory of problems/needs/opportunities.
• Look at your own work site, either your permanent work, your temporary summer work, or your work or volunteer or internship site during school.  What problems and opportunities face you or your organization?  Make and inventory.
• Think about your life as a student at WVU.  Are there things you as a student (in collaboration with other students) could to improve any aspect of the WVU environment?   Make and inventory.

Try the following checklist:

• From your inventories (above), identify three specific problems /needs/opportunities that you might address.
• Describe each problem/need/opportunity. Identify specific behaviors, policies, practices, activities, or technical characteristics that seem significant.
• Evaluate each problem/need/opportunity in terms of its potential to be addressed productively by a written report or proposal:
• Is this problem complex enough to challenge and interest you?  Is there some real meat here? Does it require some substantial thought, problem generation, problem analysis, research, reader/audience analysis, and organization analysis?
• Does the problem interest other people too?
• Does the problem relate to your background and make use of your capabilities?
• Is this problem worth solving? (Imagine answering the question, "So what?")
• Do some preliminary research.  Find and summarize at least one CURRENT (1998-2000) source on one of the problems you've identified.  A fast way to do this is to use the library's current periodicals (e.g., 6th floor in Wise) or one of the library's on-line full-text databases.  Access the databases on the web at: http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/database/fulltext_index.html

Phase Two: Write a Proposal
 

Goals for the proposal

1. Convince readers that your project is worthwhile.
2. Convince readers that you will complete the project successfully.
3. Clarify your goals and your plans for the project itself.  Identify the different aspects of the project and divide up the work so that you're ready to move forward.
4. Make some progress on the project itself.  You should have at least a tentative plan for the structure of the document you will produce at the end of the project, and you should develop a preliminary GRACE analysis of the project.  Some of the key data you'll ultimately use in the final document should probably be in your proposal.

The primary reader for your proposal is me.  This is different from the final project document you will produce, where the primary readers will be the people you want to persuade or inform concerning the project.

Secondary readers for the proposal might be people you are interviewing for the project.  For example, some of the language in the proposal might help explain to them what you are up to and why you need their help.  There may be other secondary readers as well.
 

Arguments: Significance, Resources, Benefits/Risks, Outcomes

• Significance.  Why is your project significant?  Why are you interested in it?  Who else would be interested--or should be interested--in it?  Why?  What's the history of the issue you are dealing with?  What are the implications for the future?
• Resources (Money, Time, Information).   Money shouldn't be a significant issue for this project.  You will probably only have to pay for some photocopying.  In any case, account for any expenses you do anticipate.  Much more important is the availability of time--weeks in the semester and hours in the week.  Do you have enough time to do what you want to do?  An important part of your resources argument will be a description of how you'll allocate the responsibilities and activities among yourselves to make sure you get it all done.  Another important consideration is access to information.  Do you know what information you will need and how you will get it (from print media, electronic media, interviews, surveys, etc.)?  Will you have time to get all of it?
• Benefits/Risks.  What good things do you hope will happen if you do this project?  Could any bad things happen?  If so, how will you minimize risk?
• Outcomes.  What will the final project document look like?  What will it contain?  Who will read it?  What arguments will you make, and who will do what as a result of reading these arguments?  How will your organize the document (i.e., according to what conventions)?

The proposal should be 2-3 pp. long, in memo format.  Use headings and other document design features to organize the information.  Samples in The Writing of Business, Chapter 12, will give you some ideas on format.  No matter how you organize the memo, include a detailed schedule for the project.  Finally, of course, you want to make sure your proposal is mechanically clean and correct.  With proposals as with other kinds of business writing, breaking conventions of grammar, spelling, and usage can damage your chances of a favorable reading.
 

Expression

Your most important goals are to persuade me that 1. you have a good project and 2. you'll be able to complete it successfully and on time.  The expression of the proposal should support these goals, so you should sound clear and confident.   However, don't gloss over potential problems and difficulties.  On the contrary, a thoughtful and forthright analysis of potential problems or barriers may increase my confidence in your ability to grasp a complex situation realistically.

Phase Three: Research and Develop Your Project Document

DEVELOPING YOUR PROJECT DOCUMENT.

Based on your proposal and your discussion with me, proceed to implement your project plan, according to GRACE:

Goals.  The project document should provide the primary/decision-making readers with all necessary information.  After reading the document, the primary readers should understand what you want them to understand and should be in a position to take the action you want them to take.

Readers.  The final project document should fulfill the primary readers' needs and expectations: what are these in your case?  It should take the needs of secondary readers into account (again, what are these?) and demonstrate an awareness of how those readers will gain access to the information in the document.

Arguments.  The project document should support all claims (suggestions, plans, recommendations, etc.)  with specific data and provide warrants that link the data to the claims. Documentation--sources of information, principles of interpretation, methods of analysis, and justification and rationale for methods–should establish credibility.
 
Conventions.   The final project document should include:

• a title page
• an executive summary
• a table of contents
• appropriate headings to organize and highlight the sections of the document
• a list of works cited (with at least five current sources)
• at least one graphic
• appendices (if necessary)

The report writers need to make appropriate decisions regarding document design, including page layout, readability of headings, fonts, how and where to integrate graphics, etc.

Expression.  The style should be clear and direct.  It should use any specialized or technical language appropriate for its target readers but should define any such language if the readers will not understand it.  The document should follow conventions of correct grammar, spelling, and usage.  It should be edited and proofread carefully.
 
 

PLANNING THE ORAL PRESENTATION

As part of the group project, you will give a 15 minute presentation to the class based on your group project and the advice in Chapter 14.

Assumptions about your role as presenters.  Your presentation to the class should show that you have analyzed the problem well, have set reasonable goals for your project, have considered the needs of all those affected if your arguments prevail, and have designed a well-argued solution. Teams might organize themselves into these roles:

• Speaker(s). Deliver an oral report to the group.
• Recorder. After the presentation, take notes on the responses to the report.
• Moderator. Lead a constructive discussion of the report.

• Don't try to cover every detail.  Just hit the highlights, the interesting or key points.  Give listeners a sense of what the report covers, and make them want to read it.
• Plan your introduction and conclusion carefully.  Include a purpose statement and overview in your introduction to help gain some interest.
• Rehearse your presentation so that you can refer to your notes, outline, etc. while maintaining eye contact with your audience.  Figure out how to keepp to your time limit.
• Use at least one visual in your presentation; plan to discuss it in your talk. (Let me know if you need help preparing transparencies.)  Standards of clarity, appropriateness to audience, grammar, usage, punctuation, and spelling apply to these visuals just as they do to your other written work.

MANAGING THE PROJECT COLLABORATIVELY

Use the following guidelines for (1) organizing and structuring yourselves and (2) enhancing communication and accountability among yourselves.

A Note On Minutes

I won't require that you keep minutes of your group meetings, but I recommend it. Think of the minutes as a project management tool for you--which they are. The primary audience for the minutes is yourselves. Communication can break down in groups. People don't hear agendas the same way, they don't understand assignments the same way, or they forget assignments and deadlines, or they duplicate assignments, or. . . . you name it. Keeping regular minutes helps avoid significant communication or project-management problems. For an overview of what needs to be in a good set of minutes and for a typical pattern of organization, see Chapter 3.

Shared Responsibility, Shared Rewards

The project grade will be based on the quality of the written project and also on the quality of the documentation of the work on the project--topic memos, proposal, in-class progress report, draft, etc. All the members of a group will share the reward (i.e., the grade), just as happens in the professional world. However, as also usually happens in the professional world, you will have an opportunity to comment individually to me on the quality of the process after the project is completed and to acknowledge the work of anyone whose contributions to the project's success have been particularly notable.

Blowup: Thinking About The Unthinkable

You, as a group, are responsible for managing the work of your group. Sometimes, for whatever reasons, people just don't get the job done, and they let their group down. If somebody is freeloading, there needs to be an escape mechanism whereby the group can do damage control by cutting dead weight free. The following guidelines are designed with two purposes in mind: first, to limit the power of one person to affect the grade of the group, and, second, to limit the power of the group to affect the grade of one person.

You can be fired by your group under the following conditions:

1. More than once, you either don't show up for a group meeting in or out of class, OR you don't produce something you promised the group by the time you promised it.

AND

2. You don't notify the group of a reasonable excuse (illness or emergency) for not doing whatever you didn't do. (Your group defines "reasonable," using the description in the syllabus as a guideline.)

Consequences of Being Fired

If your group fires you, you have to produce a final project on your own, with the understanding that there will be a 10-point penalty to the grade, since you'll be missing part of the point of the project.

EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT
 

SUBMISSION OF FINAL PORTFOLIO

In a single folder clearly marked with all your names, submit your final document and all your work toward it:

• any initial brainstorming (e.g., topic e-mail to me)
• project proposal with my comments
• any committee logs, agendas, minutes, or notes
• progress report
• rough drafts with readers' comments
• two copies of the final document.

Evaluative Criteria for the Proposal

• The proposal convinces readers that the project is worthwhile and can be completed successfully.
• The proposal uses format and document design features effectively.
• The proposal provides a detailed schedule for the project.
• The proposal uses clear, direct language.
• The proposal follows conventions of correct grammar, spelling, and usage.

• The progress report defines the situation the project began with, tells what's happened since the project started, and announces plans to complete the project.
• The progress report provides a convincing account of what has been done even if the situation is routine.
• If something unexpected has occurred, the progress report makes appropriate arguments concerning changes the writer proposes in view of what's happened.
• The progress report uses format and document design features effectively
• The progress report's expression is appropriate for its goals, readers, and argument.

• ORGANIZATION: The presentation is structured to aid listener's retention.  It provides a brief overview of what you'll cover in the introduction of your talk; foreshadows what's coming next; uses bridging between chunks of the talk; uses backtracking to review what's been covered; and closes by summarizing your main points.
• CONTENT: The body of the presentation is complete.  It includes all information needed to persuade listeners of the validity of your argument. This argument and its claims are well supported by the appropriate data.
• DELIVERY: The presenters speak clearly, loudly, and at an effective pace.  Good eye contact enables presenters to connect with the audience. Gestures are natural, appropriate, and confident.
• VISUAL AIDS: Visual aids are effective in enhancing the presentation.
• TIMING: Presenters kept to the time limit.

• The final project document provides the primary/decision-making readers with all necessary information.  After reading the document, the primary readers understand what you want them to understand and is in a position to take the action you want them to take.
• The project document fulfills the primary readers' needs and expectations.
• The document takes the needs of secondary readers into account and demonstrates an awareness of how those readers will gain access to the information in the document.
• The project document supports all claims (suggestions, plans, recommendations, etc.)  with specific data and provides warrants that link the data to the claims.
• Documentation--sources of information, principles of interpretation, methods of analysis, and justification and rationale for methods–establishes credibility. There are at least five current sources.
• The final project document follows conventions for title page, executive summary,  table of contents, headings to organize and highlight the sections of the document, a list of works cited (with at least five current sources), at least one graphic, appendices (if necessary)
• The style is  clear and direct.
• The document use any specialized or technical language appropriate for its target readers but defines any such language if the readers will not understand it.
• The document follows conventions of correct grammar, spelling, and usage.